Escape
by Green Kneesocks
Summary: People Under the Stairs. Roach Coming Home verse. Everyone in the Robeson house knew something about that day was different. Little did they know that one small boy stumbling into the house would change their lives forever. RoachXAlice.
1. Chapter 1

Author's opening notes: I love Roach: Coming Home but there are something's I don't like about it too so I've made up my own People Under the Stairs universe using Sodapop765's characters, with her permission don't worry, and here it is for your enjoyment. So enjoy!

"No way she leavin' him in there alone." Said Leroy as he watched the woman drive away.

"There's gotta be someone else in there. Old folks, kids, or somethin'." Said Fool not knowing just how right he was.

"C'mon, we're going in." said Leroy turning the van on. Fool saw several things wrong with this.

"Spencer told us to stay out here, Leroy." Said Fool as he sat in the van next to Leroy. Spencer had been in there for a very long time and the lady had just left the house.

"So he can hide all the good shit for himself? Why not just kick your mom out on the streets along Ruby and the kids?" said Leroy. He pulled the van into the driveway, Fool wanted to tell him that this was stupid because they had no idea when the woman would be back and he seeing their van in her driveway was suspicious.

Leroy had managed to pry his way into the massive house but not before being attacked by the attack dog, Prince. Roach and Alice were watching all of this from within the walls; Roach to try and see if he could scare them out of the house before they were killed and Alice because she was curious about outsiders.

"He's just a little boy, like us." Whispered Alice as the people made their way through the house. Roach nodded.

"Can you at least make sure he gets out? I don't want to see Daddy kill another kid." Said Alice. Roach gave her hand a squeeze and nodded. The boy was going into the cellar now. Roach left Alice on the ground floor and went down the passage way into the caged part of the cellar.

"Roach has decided to grace us with his presence." Said Scribe, a boy not much older than Roach. He had been kidnapped by Daddy for food and pleasure but the thing between the walls before Roach had saved him and put him in the cellar.

"Shut up, Scribe!" said Twig, a blind boy who had been the son before Roach. He was somewhere in his early twenties, he thought.

"Messenger agree, shut up." Said Messenger, their leader. He leaned back onto his wife, Headbanger's, large stomach. There was a baby in there, ready to come out soon. When it did he'd smother it so it didn't have to live the way he did. He had been born under the stairs twenty seven years ago, he could tell because there was a cut on his arm for every time the frost melted.

"I will not." Said Scribe. He took big strides over to Roach. The old guard, people who had been under the stairs since Messenger was a child, were eating whatever they could of the person who had just died. Roach would toss them the body as soon as he at least got the boy out of the cellar.

"Please do what Messenger says, he's the leader." Said Molly quietly from behind Scribe. She was the girl child before Alice. She had been thrown in the cellar for the people under the stairs to use and eat after she had sated bleeding from her bad place for no reason. Scribe had married her soon after.

"Well, if you say so." Said Scribe. He'd do anything, even listen to the idiot boy known as Messenger, because she said so.

"Bring body here. Food good. Food not rats. None for Roach. He baby." Said Messenger as he got up on creaking legs. Despite being so much older than Roach he was also much smaller. He pulled his blanket, the only clothing he owned, closer around himself.

"Roach smart too. Food make crazy. Messenger think." Said Messenger going over to the TV, his window into the outside world. Someone on the outside moved it away from the bars.

"Boy here. Save, kill, send. Messenger not care." Said Messenger as he and Headbanger moved the mesh away from the bars. They liked TV, it was something to watch. A way to learn about the world which they had been denied.

Roach made his way out of the caged area. The others knew how to get out but they also knew better than to try. They moved too slowly to evade Daddy, and Roach had made traps for them to keep them away from Alice. Daddy had used Molly years ago and now she was in the cellar, Roach wouldn't let that happen to Alice. He could get her out if she'd just stop being so afraid. He remembered, vaguely, the outside world. He used to tell her secret stories about his real mother, father, sisters, and the little brother growing inside of his mother. Alice didn't believe him, he could tell, but he loved the way her eyes lit up when he told her the stories anyway.

"Who are you?" asked the boy as he pulled the body away from the cage. Roach wanted to tell him not to bother, Stairmaster was missing more of his tongue than Roach was. Roach knew he had to get the boy out of there before he either died or ended up in the cellar. He jumped onto the boy's back in an effort to get him out.

"Leroy we gotta get out of this place! Oh no!" yelled Fool. He didn't know what was happening and he didn't care to know. Something was wrong, Spencer was dead, and he needed to get out. This was like some kind of a bad dream. He threw the person off of his back and into a pile of tired.

"(Go! Get out!)" Roach tried to yell. He was thrown into a pile of tires against the wall. He was in pain, bad pain. The fall then jarred a barely healed break. The boy ran up the stairs and Roach followed him. The boy began to pound on the door and Alice opened it. He was cross at Alice for that, she could have gotten hurt. He chased he boy up the stairs and fell, hard. This was just not his day. The whole day felt…off…and not the usual off either.

"(Alice, we need to talk.)" muttered Roach as Alice opened the door for the boy and then ran away to safety. He hated how she did stuff like that, put herself in danger. It was fine for him because he was bad and therefore his life had no value outside of protecting Alice but she was good and there was still a chance that things could work out for her.

"Get off!" yelled Fool as this…person…tried to get him back into the cellar. This wasn't real. This wasn't happening. This was like some terrible dream. He managed to slam the door on the person and he continued to yell. He needed to find Leroy and get out of there.

"(Fine, be that way.)" muttered Roach as he picked himself up. Great. He lost a nail. Well that was certainly going to suck later. He slid down the stairs and back into the cellar. He ripped some of the shirt Alice made for him and wrapped it around his missing nail. He went into the furnace and climbed into the vents. From the vents he went into the walls and watched the boy and the man. He may have been the boy's father; he looked to be the right age for a father to be.

"**I wonder how my real father is? Does he even remember me? Did my real family ever exist or are they just figments of my stupid imagination?" ** thought Roach as he watched the two people. The man was going to die and the people under the stairs were going to eat. Well, the Old Guard anyway…he and the ones he called his friends subsisted mainly on rats and mice.

"Leroy?" asked Fool tentatively as he saw his friend just laying there on the floor. Maybe the people got him too like that guy who tried to kill him. This wasn't happening; this was a bad dream. It had to be.

"Fool! You scared the shit out of me!" said Leroy jumping up. He had been listening and whatever was in the walls was certainly not a rat. It was probably Spencer hiding the gold coins for himself.

"I thought you was dead Leroy, you was just laying there!" said Fool. Ok, Leroy was alive and he was a grown up. He'd know what to do.

"A man ain't dead just 'cause he's layin' on the floor. I was listening, something's in there. In fact, why'd don't you crawl in there and see what it is?" said Leroy playfully slapping Fool on the cheek. Fool was not amused.

"You turkey brain! You hittin' on me and I come up here to save your ass?! You gonna stick your dumb head in there and lose it just like Spencer!" said Fool near tears. They needed to get out of there. They needed to get free.

"What you talkin', Fool?" asked Leroy now looking visibly worried. Something wasn't right about this hose. Maybe the rumors about the Robeson's were true.

"I'm talkin' we gotta get out of here, Leroy. That X-Ray Lady's back; she's out back right now by the van. She got a man with her the size of Detroit!" said Fool pleading with Leroy. He wanted to go home and just be at home and find some other way to pay the rent.

"Damn, you seen Spencer?" asked Leroy. This was bad, he couldn't go away again. Why'd he have to care about Ruby so much?!

"Oh I seen Spencer alright." Said Fool. Leroy let out a sigh of relief. At least something was beginning to go right. The important thing was that they get out and come in Sunday as they planned.

"He find anything?" said Leroy hopefully. Even a few gold coins would save Ruby and her family from being evicted.

"Something found him. He dead Leroy, I think scared to death." Said Fool solemnly. Roach smiled from his place in the wall. Good, more food for the people under the stairs. Alice was listening to them from further down the hall. She had already made a doll for the man and the boy but she didn't know what the other man looked like. Roach would tell her and she'd make a doll for him to hold his soul so he's be her property friend forever.

"You sure?" asked Leroy. The kid was wrong. The kid had to be wrong. Scared to death? No, Spencer wasn't dead. It wasn't possible.

"You thought he was white before? You should see that sucker now!" laughed Fool with tears born out of fear in his eyes. He just wanted things to be normal and right. He wished that this day had never happened.

"**Ok, Messenger's gonna love this kid and not in the wrong way either. Messenger doesn't do that because he's our leader and he doesn't have to force anyone. Thank God for small favors." **Thought Roach as he felt the pain in his finger. He decided to leave them be for a little while and steal an actual bandage for his finger. It wasn't so bad, he had been hurt much worse than this before.

Fool and Leroy made their way to the back door where they saw the man and the woman who owned the house. They looked like they had crawled out of an old timey sitcom with their hair and clothes. This entire place felt wrong.

"The door's been pried opened." Said the man. He must have been at least six and a half feet tall and over two hundred pounds.

"I told you there'd be another one." said the woman. The only word that came to Fool's head when he saw her was pointy. She was a hard, pointy, scary person. He idly wondered where the girl went to…she had helped him.

"Out the front!" said Leroy. They made a mad dash for the front door and Fool grabbed the nob. He could almost taste freedom when a thousand volts of pain shot through his entire body. He went flying back into the hard wood of the floor. His hand felt cold and numb from the electricity that shot through him.

"Pry it open at the bottom; enough so Prince can get it!" Came the cold, shrieking voice of the woman through the house. Roach and Alice both stopped breathing where they were. Mommy had that sort of power with just her voice. Roach thought she was a real life witch sometimes.

"Oh shit!" said Leroy. He thought fast and grabbed Fool. He'd have to kill the dog and then…well the owners maybe…Fool was just a kid. This was just supposed to be a regular job!

"Stand here out in the open to the dog can see you!" said Leroy pulling Fool to his feet in the middle of the room.

"You crazy?! That mother got teeth he ain't even used yet!" said Fool regaining feeling in his body. He just wanted to go home.

"Do like I say or I'm gonna take your head off!" said Leroy holding the crowbar threateningly. It may not have worked on the windows but it would work on Fool's head.

"I'm gonna nail that sucker, don't worry." Said Leroy reassuring himself more than Foo. He had never had a job go this wrong before.

"I'm worried." Said Fool he stood there in the living room a terrified sweaty mess. If he got out of this he promised to be the best possible person he could be. He'd do good in school, find religion, and do right by his woman if he lived through this and found one. The dog entered the room and just stopped, as if it was thinking about something.

"Where'd he go?" asked Leroy sticking his head up from behind the couch. He had gotten suspicious when he didn't hear Fool's screams of pain. As soon as he made himself visible the dog chomped down on his exposed arm. The pain!

"I'm gonna your head off! I'm gonna take your head off!" Said Leroy. Fool was trying to pull him away from the dog but was only making it worse. Leroy was about to start yelling at Fool to do something useful and hit the dog with the crowbar or something. His thought were a jumbled mess centering around the pain in his arm.

"God help me!" yelled Fool as he grabbed the electrifying door knob. The current somehow passed through him to the dog and Leroy like they were in a cartoon. Maybe they were. Maybe he was just hallucinating the whole thing.

"Told you I'd take your head off." said Leroy getting up from the floor. The dog was in pain and seemed possibly dying. Good riddance.

"I heard 'em yell! I heard 'em go down!" yelled the woman. Fool would feel a paralyzing chill go through him. That woman…there was something about her. It was like his very soul was trying tell him to get away before…something…happened.

"Man, these people crazy or what?" asked Fool unable to get up. His legs felt like they were made of jelly from the electricity.

"You ask 'em!" said Leroy pulling Fool to his feet and up the stairs. If this was a horror movie Leroy would have yelled at the actors not to ever go upstairs because that always spelled certain death. This was real life. They were back upstairs now and Leroy had just stopped trying in vain to kick the windows opened. Fool knew he was in a bad dream now. Here's the part where the ghost or zombie or monster or whatever would jump out of the closet. They ran back downstairs, maybe they could run out the back to safety. They were stopped at the top of the stairs when they saw the landlord and his wife.

"Little doggy baby, someone is in here." Said the woman stroking the dog with a creepy sort of affection. The man put bullets into a gun. He looked like he wasn't afraid to use it.

"The people under the stairs got the so called gas man." Said the man cocking his gun. Leroy pulled Fool back upstairs. This went from bad to worse.

"That's a big caliber automatic. You ever see the holes they tare?" asked Leroy quietly as they sneaked about in the upper levels of the house.

"We can hide under the bed!" said Fool trying to drag Leroy back into the creepy bedroom. It looked like a big enough bed for them to hide under and it would be the last place the crazy man and woman would think to look.

"No I ain't going back in there man, there's something about that place." Said Leroy. He found a closet and quickly hid in it.

"No room, find your own." Said Leroy. He hated Fool right then. He hated Fool for being so young. He hated Fool for having to live through this. He hated Fool for being related to Ruby. He hated himself for loving Ruby enough to try and pull what was possibly the last job he would ever pull.

"Poor boy. Roach, you had better save him." Muttered Alice. The man was certainly going to die and it looked like the boy would, too. Roach would try and save him. He had saved kids who went into the house in the two years he had been the thing between the walls.

"**Might as well save the man too." **thought Roach. He was in the walls and all the doors had just slammed shut. He began to make the yelping noises in the distance so the man would know he was there and not be scared. It didn't work, he ran out of the closet and into Daddy. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

"Run Fool!" yelled Leroy as the bullets pierced his body. As he died he thought about everything that had ever happened in his life and he came to the conclusion that he didn't want to die. He was a terrible father to his own kids both by Ruby and other women. He had done nothing with his life. He still had time to fix it. He needed the time. The force of the bullets sent him flying down the stairs.

"Roach…are you going to try and save the boy?" asked Alice as she leaned back towards the vent. Roach handed her a candle and the doll she made of the boy. She understood what she had to do without him miming anything. He loved how she understood him. They clasped each other's hands for a moment and enjoyed the warm feeling that came from that. Roach knew full well it was love. Alice knew it was love too but didn't know if Roach loved her back…so she said nothing. Sometimes words weren't necessary.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Yay! Chapter 2! Sorry I uploaded _Hello Again_ before this.

Fool felt numb. He had seen Leroy die. He had seen the man and the woman dancing around Leroy's dead body. He went back upstairs with no plan other than try not to die. The corridor seemed to be closing in on him. The darkness was penetrated only by a candle standing next to a cloth doll of himself. Was this part real? What was up with the doll? It was like the doll he had found earlier. A feminine hand motioned for him to follow her.

"**Mysterious hand or crazy people? Mysterious hand or crazy people? Mysterious hand." **Thought Fool. He took the candle and the doll with him as he followed the girl into the walls. There was a dog bed there and something under a blanket. He pulled the blanket back and saw a child sized rack of ribs with blood still on them. He felt like throwing up…this wasn't right…this was like…like…this wasn't right…

"Roach, you better know what you're doing." Muttered Alice as she noticed the boy was no longer following her. Normally she wouldn't be helping Roach but this boy felt special somehow. She had been praying after every punishment that someone would come and set her free. Roach always told such wonderful stories about the outside world and if he was free with her hen everything would be Ok. She opened the vent and motioned for the boy to come and follow her before Daddy shot him and ate him like he did the little girl from yesterday.

"Get back in the cellar you little bastard. You little animal shit!" said the man as he pointed a gun into the place where Fool had been hiding. Fool had managed to hide himself just before the man stuck his head in. Fool thought he looked a little like some kind of a real life Frankenstein.

"I'll get the dog up here and you'll be sorry!" said Eldon Robeson as he finished shooting. He hated that bastard in the walls. He told Mommy not to try and take an older child but she wanted that one and the two little girls he was with. He had tried until the boy was thirteen to make him into a good son before the little bastard tried calling for help. He wished Mommy wasn't too old to have more babies for the family; he wanted a boy child to love.

"**Try and mess with Alice again and you'll be sorry." **Thought Roach. The boy was throwing himself into every door, Roach could hear it. He hoped the boy didn't try and hurt Alice. He looked young, maybe the age his little brother Morgan would be now. If Morgan was even real, that is. Sometimes he thought that he had just made up his real family…if they existed why hadn't they looked for him? H decided that the best plan would be to take Daddy's attention away from Alice and the boy until…well until something…

"What are you doing?" asked Molly. Their leader and oldest resident, Messenger, had pried a brick from the wall next to where they kept the bones of their dead.

"Something happen today. Messenger feel it. Keep Mama finger necklace safe. Keep safe later take back. Is good." Said Messenger as he hid the necklace he made from his mother's finger bones behind a brick in the wall. He felt good about today and not just because of the pre-chewed rat in his stomach.

"Do you think we'll…get out?" asked Molly. She came from Mommy and Daddy, she knew that. She had been put in the cellar when she was ten and blood came from nowhere. Daddy hurt her but the thing between the walls before Roach had brought her to safety. Then she married Scribe. She wished better luck to the girl who came after her.

"…Messenger watch TV now." Said Messenger getting up. He wrapped the filthy blanket around himself and went over to the TV corner; all the while praying to the one they called God.

"What do you think?" asked Molly to her half asleep husband. Scribe shrugged his shoulders. He had been taken into the house as food five years ago and saved by the previous thing between the walls, Bites. He was about twenty now…he missed his family.

"I think we should all just die already." Said Scribe rolling over to face her. If it weren't for her he would have killed himself a long time ago. He made a promise to Bites all those years ago; to keep his wife safe and preserve their under the stairs culture. That's why he was called Scribe, because he took records.

"No, for real. I bet Roach is going to find a way to open the doors and set us all free and then I can live with your real family and we can have babies and stuff." Said Molly. She had a baby before but it went to sleep one day and didn't wake up.

"Roach is selfish. He won't set us free because Alice is too afraid of the outside. Sometimes I hate him." said Scribe

"But he's our friend." Pleaded Molly. Roach was one of the most wonderful people she had ever known. She'd be happy to be his wife after Scribe died, just like she became Scribe's wife when Bites died. Boys didn't live as long as girls did.

"Shh! Mommy's here!" said Headbanger, formerly known as Anita. If Mommy knew that there were girls under the stairs she's have Daddy try and kill them.

"She's not my Mommy." Muttered Scribe as he laid himself down on the filthy, hay covered floor. He hated everything about his life besides Molly.

Fool was happy to have found someone friendly. He had been throwing himself against all the doors trying to find someplace to hide from all the craziness. He was running on fear and the most basic sense of self-preservation now; not even sure about what was real life and what was just fantasy. Maybe this was his life and what he thought was his life was just his fantasy.

"M-My name is Fool. What's yours?" Said Fool as he extended a hand to the pretty girl in the white dress. She was the same girl from earlier. Who was she and why had she helped him?

"Alice." Said Alice quietly watching him closely like she had seen Roach do. She knew nothing about him beside the fact that he felt special. He was a kid and kids weren't usually bad people. She was scared…very scared…she was seeing evil. She didn't want her eyes to be cut out.

"Don't be scared. You never seen a brother before?" asked Fool. This was priceless? She, a girl who lived in a house with the psychos, was scared of him? It was the last slice of crazy in the crazy cake.

"Never had a brother." Said Alice. Roach was supposed to be her brother but he was always telling her stories about his life was like in the before times when he was with his real family. Sometimes she thought that they were stories but other times she wished so hard that they were real that she almost believed him.

"No, I mean a black dude." Said Fool. He felt better just being near her. She was so very pretty. If this was the last girl he ever saw he'd be happy with that. Alice looked even more confused than before. He wasn't black, he was brown.

"There's black folks in this neighborhood." Said Fool looking out the window at the world he wondered if he'd ever be able to be in again. If this was his last day on earth he was going to spend it with a pretty girl.

"Neighborhood?" asked Alice. She knew that word from someplace…probably Roach. He used a lot of outsider words. She looked out the window too. It both excited and scared her; like holding Roach's hand in the middle of the night.

"You know, a neighborhood? Outside?" said Fool. He took in how incredibly pale the girl was…no, it wasn't possible…

"Well that's outside and not in here." Said Alice. She couldn't think of the outside now. It was starting to scare her and Roach wasn't there to pull her back. She held the cloth doll she had made close to her. Maybe it would hold his soul later and maybe it wouldn't.

"You get outside don't you?" asked Fool. Alice shook her head no.

"You sayin' never?" asked Fool not believing her. How could someone spend their entire life inside?

"Can't get out, no one ever has." Said Alice. She knew how to get out but she was just too scared. There were some days, days when Roach was broken and bleeding, when she seriously considered escaping. She was just too selfish and scared…what was out there?

"W-Well I'm gonna get out. I'm a whole other thing." Said Fool. He went over to the door to try and find a way out. He'd come back with help for Alice after he escaped.

"People have tried." Said Alice trying to get the boy to stay for a little while longer. He was becoming a friend in her eyes. She knew Roach saved kids who came into the house so maybe if he saved the boy then they could all be friends.

"You-You mean the people in the cellar?" asked Fool turning to face her. Alice gave a small nervous nod. She didn't like thinking about them. Roach said that they were scary and would kill, eat, and do unspeakable things to her like Daddy had tried to.

"Who are they?" asked Fool. They were…they had eaten Spencer's hand. One of them had tried to kill him. Alice put a hand over her mouth because now she was speaking evil. Maybe today would finally be the day that Mommy cut out her bad part and put her in the cellar.

"Mommy and Daddy looked a long time to find the perfect boy child but each one they found turned out bad. Some saw things they weren't supposed to, other heard too much, others talked back. Daddy cut out the bad parts and put the boys in the cellar…one by one…" said Alice. She could see the look Fool was giving her, it was a bit like how Roach looked at Daddy. She didn't like it.

"W-Well they get flashlights and food of some kind. I suppose they're happy in their own way." Said Alice. That's what Roach had told her. He said that they were happy in their own way and that she needn't think about them because they were all going to die down there anyway.

"Yeah, right. How come they haven't put you in the cellar?" asked Fool looking her up and down with an appraising eye. Tears began to form in Alice's big, brown eyes.

"I do not see, or hear, or speak evil. It's the only way." Said Alice a single tear made its way down her face. She was crying for Roach then. She remembered that day…his screams…so much blood…She threw her hands over her ears as the memories of his screams became reality.

"What is that!" said Fool. He knew that voice…it was that cellar person who attacked him!

"What?" asked Alice. She knew that she was hearing evil right then and she knew that hearing evil was a sin. She didn't want to be put in the cellar…she didn't want to be like Roach.

"That yelling, what is that!" said Fool. It sounded almost like it was taunting someone…and then the gunshots started.

"W-Well that's Roach." Said Alice like she was telling him about the weather. Roach…was that a person? What kind of a name was Roach?

"That's who Daddy's hunting…see Daddy hates Roach 'cause he got out of the cellar and into the walls…and now Daddy can't find him." giggled Alice looking down. She felt her face flush as she thought of him.

Roach felt alive as he tortured Daddy. Daddy couldn't shoot what he couldn't see! Sure Roach had bullets graze him, his head most recently, but he had never been fatally hurt. This was like revenge of his. Revenge for what had happened to Alice more so than what had happened to him. Alice was the one that mattered…he was the bad person not her.

"Fire!" said Daddy as he hunted the thing between the walls. He hated this-this-this animal. How dare he come into Eldon's happy home! He should have stayed in the cellar with the other bad boys. Eldon knew that he should have killed the boy when he had the chance years and years ago. Never the matter, he'd pay.

"There's got to be another way out!" said Fool as the shots got close and closer. Alice seemed oddly unfazed by all of this. He supposed that this was normal for her.

"Further into the house. The only way is here. Papa's too big to follow and he's afraid of what's in there." Said Alice as she opened the hole in the bathroom wall that Roach said was made before they were born.

"I don't want in, I want out." Said Fool. He didn't want to be in that room or in that house. He wanted to wake up or go to sleep or just not be there.

"Sometimes in is out." Said Alice motioning for the boy to go deeper into the wall. Roach was leading Daddy away from them but she still needed to get back to the room before Mommy noticed she was gone and punished her. A loud shriek from Roach made them both jump away from the wall.

"Forget it." Said Fool. He didn't want to take his chances in the walls with gun shots and that crazy guy from the cellar. He attempted to run out into the hallway but turned around and ran back into the bathroom when he saw the man in a strange leather suit shooting his gun.

"Yes." Said Daddy as he heard the door close. When he got his hands on the thing between the walls he'd make his death slow and painful. He do everything he wanted to do to Alice to the thing between the walls before he killed him. After that he'd move onto Alice, forget what Mommy said. Wives weren't the boss of husbands anyway!

"Ok, I'll try it." Said Fool to Alice but she wasn't there. He pushed as hard as he could onto the small door in the wall but it wouldn't budge. Alice had done as Roach said and put the wooden thing in front of it when she wasn't using it.

"**What is that banging sound? Not Alice, she knows better…damn that kid!"** thought Roach as he led Daddy to a different part of the house away from Alice and the boy. He thought, idly, about maybe just getting it over with. He banged his hand against the wall to hurt himself. He couldn't die; what would Alice do without him.

"Good boy. Healthy Prince, a secure appetite." Said Mommy as she fed her little Prince a snack. She knew the bad man wasn't with the gas company and now he'd pay for his lies. When a person was bad that person needed to be punished. She heard a car pulling up in the back yard.

"Stay." Said Mommy. It was a police car. They didn't need any trouble with the police. When she was a little girl and her sister, Eloise, was bad with their father and had an evil baby growing inside of her she was put in the cellar. She had escaped and went to the police about what had happened. Her father paid off the police and almost managed to have her killed before she disappeared. Elmira liked to think about Eloise being killed by the criminals in the world.

"Daddy, police outback." Said Mommy into the house microphone. She loved how her voice traeled to every corner of the house. It was hers. This was her domain.

Fool was attempting to stand on the bath tub and hide behind the curtain. He wasn't thinking straight and he knew it. He just knew he needed to hide. He fell from the rim of the tub and it hurt. Not that Fool cared, he just wanted to survive. He remembered a line from a book he read. This was a mad house! A mad house! He looked out the window and saw the cops. Yes! God listened and he cared!

"Hey police! Police!" yelled Fool as he banged on the window. They couldn't hear him…! What was wrong! Fool prayed to God that if he managed to get out of this he's be the best person he could possibly be. His prayers were going to be answered and he didn't even know it.


End file.
